I doubt many of us would say a Bible. Even though a familiar Bible may have meaningful scribbles and notes in the margin and although we don't know exactly where that verse in Ephesians is - we do know that it's in the bottom half of the left-hand page - but a Bible is easy to replace - at least in terms of the text.
This afternoon at Oasis Tea we're going to be looking at the story of Mary Jones. Mary was born in Wales in 1784. Every Sunday her family would make the two-mile trip to church and Mary soon fell in love with the Bible, its stories and the God it spoke of. By the age of 9 Mary was determined to have a Welsh language Bible of her own. Mary's family were poor and Welsh Bibles were rare and expensive but Mary was determined. So she started to save up for her very own Welsh Bible.
After six years she had enough money and set off on foot on the 25 mile trip to Bala in order to buy a Bible for herself.
The man she finally bought her Bible from was so inspired by her story that he went on to found the organisation that is now the Bible Society. You'll find their website here which includes more details of Mary's story.
The Bible Society are passionate about providing people with affordable copies of God's word in their own language. Here's a video of the excitement from a tribe in West Papua who have waited 47 years for the New Testament in their own language.
I wonder how much we take having a copy of God's word available in a language that we can read for granted. We've never had such easy, instant access to God's word and yet I wonder if we read it and value it less than generations before us.
It wouldn't be Oasis Tea without a little craft to entertain and frustrate. Mary Jones' father was a weaver, as to was her husband, and so we're going to weave a simple bookmark - maybe to use in a Bible.
You'll need three drinking straws, these are about 12cm long, and three pieces of wool (about 6 cm longer than your straws) tied together at one end and threaded through the straws. Finally, use a piece of tape to fix the staws together at the knotted end.
You're now ready to start weaving.
Take the piece of wool you want to start weaving with and tie it to one of the outside straws. (This piece is not one of the three pieces you've threaded through the straws.)
Then simply start weaving - over, under, over, under...
Make sure you keep your wool reasonably tight and pressed up towards the knot end. If you want to change colour just tie another colour on and tuck any loose ends into the weaving.
Keep going until you get to the end of the straws and tie off your wool to one of the outside straws.
Now, carefully remove the tape and whilst holding your weaving in one hand carefully pull out the straws one at a time.
Once you've removed the staws tie the three long threads together. You can now move your weaving up and down the strings to get them into the position that you like. Trim off any loose ends.
Obviously, you can make your weaving longer by using longer straws or by pulling your straws down your weaving as you progress. You can make your weaving wider by using more straws.
